CONFUCIUS

 All of us know about Buddha our own great ethical teacher, but know nothing about Confucius of China who was a contemporary of Buddha other than that he was a philosopher.  

Despite Buddha being an ethical teacher than a philosopher, Vaishnavism elevated him to be the 9th Avatar of Lord Vishnu. What Buddha taught was very simple, yet Hinayana Buddhism has turned his sayings into a web of philosophy and viewed Buddha only through that. A similar thing happened to Confucius. 

Confucius was born in the year 550 BC which makes him a contemporary of Buddha (born in 567 BC). China was then without a strong central government and their citizens were looted by robber barons who pillaged the people and went from city to city. This turned China into a wilderness of starving people. 

Confucius loved his countrymen and tried to save them by giving them a philosophy of life. He was a peaceful man and knew that salvation would come only from a change of heart. He therefore set about on his mission of changing the hearts of the people. 

Confucius was a good student in his youth. He studied many subjects, including ceremonial practices, music, archery, driving a chariot, calligraphy, and arithmetic. He also had a good understanding of history and poetry.

While in his 30s Confucius began teaching. His goal was to improve the society. He believed that students should work on bettering their lives in addition to gaining knowledge. Confucius is considered to be the first teacher in China who wanted to make education available to all men.

Confucius was also into politics. He wanted an influential position in the government so that he would be able to reform society. He held government posts while in his 40s and 50s, but he never received a position of great influence. Confucius died in 479 bce.

Till his time, the Chinese were not much interested in religion and believed in spooks and devils. But they never had any prophets. Confucius never claimed any divine powers, nor did he claim that any divine voice spoke to him from above. That makes him unique among the men who originated the various religions of the world.  

Confucius asked for no recognition, neither did he expect that anyone should follow him or worship him. He is akin to the Greek philosophers known as the Stoics; they believed in right living and righteous thinking without a hope for any reward but simply for the peace of a soul. For this reason Confucius was very tolerant, and he also visited Lao Tse who founded the system called Taoism. 

Confucius bore no hatred to anyone and taught the virtue of supreme self-possession. He taught that whatever happens, happens for the best and should be free from anger and passion and bear whatever life brings forth. (This is perhaps something akin to our theory of Karma) 

Initially, he had very few students but their numbers went on increasing and by the time of his death in 479 BC, several Kings and Princes of China have become his disciples. By the time Jesus was born, Confucianism has become a way of life for many Chinese and continues to influence them even today. 

However, like all religions, with time Confucianism too got distorted. Confucius said that the mother and father should be honoured, but with time his followers became more obsessed with the memory of their departed parents than their children and grandchildren. They became too intent of the past and forgot about the present. Rather than disturbing a cemetery located on the fertile side of a mountain, they planted rice on the other barren and rocky side and preferred starvation to desecration of the ancestral grave. 

Time went on, and in the sixteenth century when then uncivilised Christians came up on the new world, they did not know what to make of the statues of Confucius. They came to the easy conclusion that he is a plain devil who represented something idolatrous and heretical and did not deserve any respect from them.